This invention relates to a machine for handling sheet material and more particularly to a machine for dividing a web of material into successive sheets and for affixing a narrow strip to each sheet to produce a garment.
There has been developed a bib apron and a method for making the same which is extremely economical and highly satisfactory in use. A representative apron of this type is disclosed in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 322,723 filed Jan. 11, 1973 by Richard A. Batt, and a particularly advantageous method for producing the apron is disclosed in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 322,722 also filed Jan. 11, 1973 by Richard A. Batt and Charles B. Green. The aprons customarily are fabricated from a continuous web of nonwoven material which is provided with side seams along its longitudinal edges and is cut in a transverse direction to form successive sheets. A narrow nonwoven strip is positioned across each sheet and is uniquely oriented such that when two of the opposed corners of the sheet are folded over portions of the strip and are attached to the body of the sheet, the strip is firmly held in place to form both the neck loop and the tie elements for the apron.
To manufacture aprons and other garments of the foregoing type, it was heretofore often necessary to produce the garments on a piecework basis, with at least some of the cutting, folding, fastening and transporting operations being performed in a more or less manual fashion. The remaining operations for the most part necessitated the use of quite complicated machinery which was difficult and expensive to obtain and was occasionally unreliable in use. In addition, and this has been of special moment in the manufacture of garments of the bib apron type, problems arose heretofore in the assembly and fastening of the neck loops and tie elements to the main body portions of the garments.
Still further difficulties were encountered, in attempting to design automated machinery for this purpose, because of the need for maintaining a satisfactory production rate while keeping the mechanical loading of the machine within reasonable limits. These latter difficulties were of particular concern in the design of the mechanism for severing the web of material to form the successive sheets. Also, problems were encountered heretofore in uniformly and smoothly advancing precise lengths of the narrow strip material to a predetermined location on the machine and then severing the strip at the appropriate point in the operation cycle.